Have you done it lately? In case you haven’t, I don’t recommend it.

I was quite settled in after 15 years living in my townhouse. Nice neighborhood. Good friends. Lovely community involvement. But something was shifting. I started thinking, ‘Is this it?’
Well yes, that could have been it, and everything would have been fine. But ladies and gentlemen, fine is the enemy of excellent.

It all started with my mentor asking me the question, “What have you always wanted to do, but never given yourself permission to do?” Gulp.
My rational self resisted. Then the pen started to jot down some secrets. Ideas I hadn’t shared with anyone.

After what felt like an hour, only a few minutes had passed as I put the pen down. “Phew, glad that’s done. Yuck.” But the worst was yet to come. She then asked me to share, outloud. No thanks, I’ll pass. What? Not an option? Well okay. Deep breath.

Move.

Not just move down the road, but my secret wish was to move closer to my family which just so happens to be 500 miles away in the state where I grew up. My grown-up brain was screaming, “This is not a practical idea. It doesn’t make sense. Why would I consider uprooting my entire life right now?!”
Ted Talk favorite and author of The 4-Hour Workweek, Tim Ferriss, warns us about what he calls tolerable mediocrity. “If it’s tolerable mediocrity, and you’re like, ’Well, you know it could be worse. At least I’m getting paid.’ Then you wind up in a job that is slowly killing your soul and you’re allowing it to happen. Comfort can be a very, very dangerous thing.”

In life, fine is the enemy of excellent. I had been doing fine. But it wasn’t excellent.

So, in the pursuit of excellence I purged, packed, donated and/or dumped almost everything I owned. I rented my townhouse and loaded a truck. Can you imagine doing that? I was feeling sad and uncertain, hopeful and free all at the same time.

In the months and weeks to come I’ll share some of the ‘fun’ stories from my move that have turned into life lessons.

Here’s a beauty I’ll call Little Miss Independence. It was just 2 days before the new family was moving in when I called a local moving company. Over the phone I admitted, “I give up. I can’t do it alone. Can you have someone here today or tomorrow?” It was then very quiet. Today or tomorrow?! 

As if we needed more evidence that Angels are real, the next day 2 guys and a truck showed up and hauled all the big stuff and all the boxed stuff to storage. A miracle. But I still worked the rest of the day and slept on the townhouse floor that night because I was too stubborn and proud to ask for some help.

Life lesson: Suck up the ego. Stop being so independent. I don’t have to do everything alone. I can ask for help.

Today, other than 50-60 boxes, the move is behind me. I’m still getting settled in. It will probably take a little while. Things are very different than they used to be. And that’s a good thing. In fact, it’s excellent.

Namaste.

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